


Alive (At All Costs)

by professorandre1228



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angel Dean, Angel Sam, Human Michael, human cas, human gabe, reverse au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:21:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29415540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/professorandre1228/pseuds/professorandre1228
Summary: Sam and Dean are Samuel, the Angel of Death, and Daniel, the Watcher.  They have both been pulled from their usual assignments to watch over two human brothers who must be kept alive at all costs.  Sam's charge, Cas, has no survival instinct, which makes his job even stranger.  Usually, he's watching humans die and assisting them to their final reward.  But now, he spends every moment just nudging the human to prevent his death, which would kick off the Apocalypse.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	1. And Lo, We Have Heard On High

**Author's Note:**

> Totally canon divergent. Just borrowing the characters because it's so easy to love them as they are. Just trying out different scenarios in my own way.

He grimaced even before he stuck his foot into the young man’s path, causing him to trip, falling forward onto his hands and knees. The book he’d been carrying skittered off the edge of the curb and when the dark-haired young man had sucked in a quick breath, it had been more for the book laying just on the road, than for his own skinned hands and knees. 

“Cas!” Yelled the older brother, jogging over as soon as he’d seen the younger one go over under the street lamp. “Still tripping on your own feet?” The twinkle in his golden hazel eyes dimmed as suddenly, bright headlights of a car passed directly in front of where Cas had fallen. The older leaned down to yank at his brother’s arm to pull him further back, seeing the wash of air from the passing vehicle blowing the young man’s hair back, it had been so close. 

“Gabe,” he hissed as he stood up and inspected his hands. “I guess I missed the sidewalk crack.” While his older brother glanced around in suspicion, Cas cast his eyes around for his book. Once he spied it in the road, he bent to grab it, only to be yanked back by Gabe. 

“Bro, you gotta look where you’re going.” He looked right, then left, then stepped out far enough just to grab the book from the road, then darted back up onto the curb. “You need a freaking guardian angel with you 24/7, if you’re just gonna’ keep your head down and say ‘screw life’ like that.” Cas glared down at his older brother. Having been adopted, Cas was nearly six feet tall, with Gabe topping out around 5’8”. 

“You’re already a mother hen,” Cas muttered. “You going to be my angel to watch over me too?” Gabe handed the book back to his brother with a smirk. 

“You couldn’t handle all my angelic beauty flitting around you all day. I prefer to wrap you in bubble wrap.” The dark-haired man glared as he took the book from his hand, but the blonde brother merely smiled broadly. “Either way, put the book away until we get to the bakery or Michael will fuss once he realizes it was the reading without caution of your surroundings and forbids you any books for a week.” Cas sighed then, looking a bit sheepish. He twisted to push the book into his backpack, before dusting off his hands and knees, wincing at the slight scrapes. Gabe threw an arm over the taller brother’s shoulders and took over guard duty as they finished crossing the street.

*****

“One of those days, huh?” His brother said softly from where he leaned on the corner of the building, watching the two brothers’ banter as they walked away. Samael sighed, shoulders slumping as he let his head drop forward. 

“I really hope not,” he said. His brother’s green eyes took in Samael’s posture before shaking his head and coming closer to clap him on the shoulder. 

“Yeah, kinda sucks for the Angel of Death to have to resurrect his special case charge _again_ , huh?” He teased the taller angel before turning them both in the direction the other brothers had gone and flitting forward to catch up. 

“When dad said he had a special assignment for me, I wasn’t exactly excited, you know?” The other angel just nodded along, their private conversation going unheard by the two humans. “When he told me I was permanently assigned to a human, I was less excited. But now that I’ve been by Cas’ side for the last 20 human years, all that non-excitement is now just adrenaline. All based around how to keep him from dying every moment of every rotation of the planet.” Samael threw up his hands, then ran one over his long, wavy hair in frustration. “You’re the warrior angel, Dean. Guard duty is kind of your thing.” He stopped and looked down at his brother. “Want to trade?”

Dean chuckled and shook his head. 

“Sam, if dad says you play guardian to this human, that’s what you do. You follow orders. I have my own orders and I’m following them.” Sam sighed loudly. 

“But you don’t have to be on constant guard for the kid with absolutely no self-preservation instincts.” 

“And absolutely no social graces,” Dean snickered. Sam threw up his hands again.

“Exactly! Which makes it even harder because you know how many times he’s been killed because he said the wrong thing to the wrong person and he was completely clueless to the danger of the situation?” Dean shrugged.

“A few.” Sam gaped at his brother.

“Yes, Dean. ‘A few’. And after all these millennia of being the Angel of Death, of me going out to bring mercy and compassion by retrieving souls from their dead bodies to end their suffering, I am now stuck stuffing this kid’s soul back into his body again and again.” Dean’s smile dropped.

“Yeah, Gabe’s noticing more lately. If we can’t be more discreet in this assignment, he’s gonna’ figure it out.” Sam adjusted his tunic with a huff.

“Well, Cas found a book in Enochian among his father’s books and I think I saw a ritual that will tether his soul to his body so I don’t have to fly off and catch it every time. And then, when the alarms I set on him after that fiasco with the train and the demon go off, it’ll be faster and easier to heal him just enough so it looks like he was just knocked out.” 

“Rather than killed and somehow came back to life miraculously?” Dean side-eyed him with a smile. 

“Yes, Dear dad, yes. Tessa said that Billie is trying to get the rules changed so that once a soul is outside a body a certain length of time, there is no resurrection unless it’s directed by Heaven.” Sam shrugged his shoulders, letting his wings flutter between planes for a moment, before resettling them. 

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Dean grimaced, rubbing the back of his neck. “I really thought she understood I wasn’t ready for a bond. But she shouldn’t take it out on you.” Sam glared over at his brother. “Yeah, I’ll take it up to Bobby. Let him know what’s going on so he can nip it in the bud and let her know your assignment is directed by Heaven to keep the kid alive no matter what.” 

In front of them, the human brothers turned into the ironically named ‘Heavenly Host Bakery’ that was owned by their older brother Michael, but Gabriel ran and was head baker/chef for. Gabe held the door open for his little brother, then glanced behind them, scanning the sidewalk. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but ever since Castiel had very nearly been killed on that train, he’d had the sensation that they were being watched. Cas raised an eyebrow at him as he passed his older brother, prompting Gabe to just shake his head and follow him in. 

“I think we need to get permission to read them into the program,” Dean muttered.

“No shit,” Sam growled. Dean blinked up at him, then sighed. 

“If you can watch both, I’ll head up and see if I can coax dad to lay it all out and give us the go ahead.” 

Sam nodded absently, watching both the men through the bakery window. There was a puff of grace on the breeze that ruffled his hair and Dean was gone. 

*****

The rest of the morning had gone smoother. Michael had already balanced the books, thawed everything Gabe would need for the orders for the day, as well as to begin baking to fill the cases for walk-in customers. Cas had plopped into his usual booth to finish the essay that was due tomorrow. At one point, he’d thought he’d heard the tiny bell above the front door tinkle, but as the door was still locked this early in the morning, and he saw no one besides himself and the shadows of his brothers through the kitchen doorway, he just assumed he was hearing things and went back to his research on apiology and apiculture for his paper on bees and their purpose in the current precarious balance of nature. 

He was unaware of the rather tall and broad angel who was perched like a bird on the edge of the far counter, out of the way of the flow of traffic. Not that humans could see him or feel him if he didn’t allow it, but it irritated his senses to constantly feel the souls drifting through his space. Sam sat patiently, his elbow on his knee, chin on his propped-up hand, and watched his charge reading so intently. He kept a grace tendril directed at the kitchen to watch for any mishaps or dangers around his charge’s brother. He listened in to Michael and Gabriel’s friendly banter and chuckled when something caught him as amusing. 

The older brothers drifted in and out of the kitchen, bringing out pastries for the display. They edited the chalkboard specials and unlocked the door, just as the streetlights flickered off as the sun crested the horizon. When the first customer came in, the bell over the door tinkled, making Cas’ forehead wrinkle. Earlier, he’d looked around, expecting to see someone coming in, but now, it was like he was no longer interested in whoever was coming in or out. With a brief shake of his head and a shrug, he began packing away his laptop and research materials. 

Right on time, Gabriel came out from the kitchen, wiping his hands on a dishrag that he tossed over his shoulder. He grabbed a bottled water from the beverage case, bringing it over to Cas with a smile. Their brother was working the register and just waved as the youngest turned to leave. The blonde patted him on the back with an anxious look, nearly flinching as Sam sighed at the thought of his charge being on the move with so many dangerous things between the bakery and the college campus. Gabe looked around, still not seeing anything, but the room suddenly felt a little cooler once his brother was out on the sidewalk and headed towards the campus several blocks away. 

Sam called to his brother that he was having to leave with his charge and was rewarded with a brief reply that he was on his way back to Gabe now. The tall angel sighed as he waved a hand, pushing a plastic bag on the breeze to startle Cas into sidestepping, which he never even noticed had prevented him from barreling directly into the chest of a construction worker carrying a jackhammer over his shoulder. One less plastic bag and poor Cas might have lost a toe or two when the distracted worker dropped it on his foot. As it was, they passed each other by scant inches, both barely glancing up to mutter an ‘excuse me’ before continuing on. Sam rolled his eyes Heavenward and continued to follow Cas.


	2. I Bring Great Tidings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Samael and Daniel (Sam and Dean) reveal themselves.

“Well?” Sam sent over their private link once Cas was settled into his first two-hour class of the day. He felt a playful shove against the link from his brother.

“Dad said after you tether the clueless clutz, the next time either of them even makes a move that looks like they suspect anything, we can reveal ourselves in all our glory.” Dean mentally snickered as Sam rolled his eyes. “You keep rolling those eyes, little brother, and dad may have to send you to Bobby to rebuild part of your vessel.” 

“So, you’re saying ‘they’ll get stuck that way’?” Sam teased back at him with a smile. He felt his brother’s laughter and wondered not for the first time how his warrior brother had blossomed among the humans, having fallen in love with their music and movies, while Sam had preferred the natural world and ingesting knowledge as fast as the humans could get it into print. It was one thing he and his charge shared. Dean and Gabe had a lot of the same likes as well and wasn’t that suddenly a revelation. Some 20 years after starting the assignment and he finally saw why they had been paired up as they had. “Huh.” He said more to himself. 

If Dean caught the sound, he didn’t remark on it, instead launching into a lengthy tale about the last night out he’d had before this assignment. There was a neutral zone bar run by supernatural creatures, where angels and demons could go and no violence was allowed. It was aptly named ‘Halos and Horns’, and not a place Sam had set foot in more than once. Dean, however, headed there after every skirmish. He even had sort of friends among the demons. When Dean mentioned ‘Meg’, Sam immediately tuned out. Anything involving that demon would end up making him embarrassed and uncomfortable, but Dean had started the story, and nothing would get him to stop, so best to let him get it out and be done with it. 

*****

Amazingly, it turned out that the ritual that tethered Cas’ soul to his body actually sparked Sam’s grace so that as he spoke the last Enochian syllables to complete it, both Cas and Gabe’s eyes nearly bugged out of their eyes as for a flicker of an instant, Sam was fully visible to them as they sat in the den in their shared house. Cas had been seated with his legs crossed and a thick tome on his lap, while Gabe was heavily involved in cheering on ladies jello wrestling, of all things. Sam had taken that moment of peace to complete the tethering so that once Cas went to bed, he and Dean could slip into the park nearby and bask in the light of the full moon. 

He knew the exact moment they both saw him. Gabe had leapt backwards over the back of the couch, the remote in his hand, pointing it like a sword. Cas’ eyes had gone wide before his forehead scrunched down in confusion and he clambered back over the back of the couch to where Gabe pulled him behind him. Their breathing sped up and neither appeared to blink for a bit. Sam had only been visible for a split second, but when Dean sighed from where he’d been lounging against the end of the couch and watching the tv with Gabe, Sam nodded in resignation. 

“We know you’re there,” Gabe nearly stuttered. His voice wavered, even as he did his best to hide his fear. Sam held up a hand to Dean and waited for his brother to acknowledge that Sam would go first. With a deep breath, he slid completely into the human plane. They both gasped and stumbled back a step. 

“Who are you?” Cas asked breathily, one hand gripping the tome he hadn’t dropped and the other on Gabe’s wrist where his older brother’s hand was gripped tightly onto his pajama top. 

“What are you?” Gabe asked, still brandishing the tv remote like a sword. 

Sam stood to his full height, not in an act of intimidation, but simply a display. He unfurled his wings a bit, just enough so they could hazard a guess at his identity and waited with his hands clasped lightly in front of him at his waist. The blonde’s honey dark eyes swept up and down Sam’s vessel, then an eyebrow popped up and the fear was replaced by confusion and a bit of humor. 

“And where have you been all my life?” Sam narrowed his eyes at the older brother, trying to block out the bark of laughter from Dean, who still remained on the next plane. He felt his body flush from his hairline to his exposed chest. 

“I am an angel,” Sam began slowly. With a light touch of grace, he lit up his eyes from within and gave his wings a mild glow. Both the humans’ mouths dropped into an ‘o’. Gabe eventually glanced down at the remote in his hand and tossed it back towards the couch, releasing his hold on Cas’ pajama top. 

“What kind of angel is 7’ tall, built like a Greek god and wears only enough clothing to keep away the R rating?” Gabe asked, his eyes back to roaming over Sam’s body. His eyes drifted to his dark brown wings that were streaked with yellows, blues, and greens, then up to Sam’s eyes, where the same colors flowed in his glowing irises as though they were colored clouds drifting behind the lenses. 

“A freaking archangel,” Dean intoned, stepping forward as he appeared, putting himself a half step in front of but a bit to the side of where Sam still stood. Gabe jumped back again as Castiel squeaked, causing all of them to glance at him in surprise. The dark-haired man blushed under their scrutiny and ducked his head, but kept his eyes on the shorter, more muscular angel in front. Dean spread his own iridescent green wings, shot through with various shades of dark brown, almost black, that matched his vibrant green eyes and brandished the shining silver sword as though daring either human to threaten the taller angel behind him.

“Pbbbt,” Sam sputtered as he spat out a few feathers and pushed Dean’s wing from out of his face. “Daniel, seriously?” The shorter angel’s scowl faded as he rolled his eyes. He pulled his wings in tight around his body, then turned to Sam, pointing the tip of the sword at Sam’s nose. 

“I told you. I hate that name, Sam-a-el,” he growled, emphasizing Sam’s full name with a mocking sneer. The taller angel sighed, feeling a smile tilt his mouth. He reached a finger up to touch the point of the weapon and a tiny drop of liquid light appeared where the flesh met the strange metal. 

“I offer my grace in apology, Dean, oh, Watcher of Men,” his soft voice hummed, making the shorter angel pull back, the sword flickering out of existence. Dean grabbed the ‘bleeding’ finger and pressed his lips to it in a kiss. “Careful, great warrior, or you may give our charges the impression you aren’t the badass we both know you are.” Dean grunted but dropped the hand and turned narrowed eyes back to the two no longer cowering humans. 

“My name in your lore is Daniel, the Watcher Angel, but I prefer to be called Dean.” Both humans exchanged a glance of confusion and a bit of shock. “My brother is Samuel, the Angel of Death.” Sam saw them both freeze and he immediately tried to smile and shove Dean to the side.

“I prefer to be called Sam,” he said softly, side-eying Dean. “And no, neither of us are here to kill you or attend your deaths.” Once both of the humans had appeared to begin breathing again, he sighed. “In fact, it’s the opposite. We have been sent to keep you both alive at all costs.”

*****

For all Dean’s posturing in the beginning, Sam was seriously beginning to feel for him. Cas had been awestruck and mostly silent, only once asking quietly, “Why me?”, for which Sam had no answer. Gabe, however…was in full Gabe mode.

“Still not sure I’m buying this,” the blond human said, pulling the lollipop from his mouth and gesturing with it towards Sam. “I get that Cassie has the survival instincts of a blind and deaf lemming, and don’t get me wrong, I’m so totally beyond grateful you’re here to keep him alive, and for whatever reason, me, but riddle me this…” He paused for a breath, leaning back on his elbow on the end of the couch where Dean was now seated on the other end. Both the angels had dematerialized their wings, but Sam had remained standing calmly where he had initially appeared, his features composed. 

Dean, however, was bent over, elbows on his knees, both hands buried in his hair, muttering lowly, “why me? Why me?”

“If you’re angels, why are you wearing clothing at all if you remain invisible? Or are you on another plane of existence and can just see and interact with us across them? Are all angels ‘heavenly bodies’?” Gabe asked while pumping his eyebrows up and down with a leer. “Can I be ‘smote’ with your ‘sword’?” Sam cleared his throat as Dean clasped his hand in front of him and looked up, pleading with Heaven to let him do something to shut the annoying human up. 

“This clothing, while minimal in the human standards of current public decency, is a reminder for all humans who look upon us of the original sin of shame.” Sam said patiently. “As for being ‘invisible’, your guess is pretty close. It’s a higher plane, a step up from the human dimension. Extraordinarily enough, there are some humans who are enlightened or contain the right latent ability to view us across the planes as we view you. You, yourself, Gabe, have sensed us many times, even though you were not fully aware of us.” Gabe’s eyes widened as he shared an incredulous glance with Cas. 

“And while I would love to ‘smite’ you,” Dean spoke up before Sam could continue, “it would be the exact opposite of our mission and even if Sam is choosing the ignore the gross innuendos you’re throwing his way, what you are seeing as ‘heavenly bodies’ are vessels we created ourselves from the smallest atom up so we could make them as ‘attractive’ or as ‘imposing’ as we wanted.” When Sam rolled his eyes at Dean’s finger quotes, it was Cas who chuckled. The atmosphere in the room relaxed a little and Sam realized they were all finally calm and this was a more rational discourse than he had expected, at least between Gabriel and Dean. 

“I chose my physical appearance to be pleasing as to not further frighten the souls I collect,” Sam smiled softly. When Gabe looked him up and down, Sam nodded, reading his thoughts easily in his face. “The size of the vessel was a side effect of being an archangel. The other archangels are also of relative size.”

“Relative to...power?” Cas’s voice piped up finally. Sam tilted his head in thought.

“I suppose,” he responded, glancing down at Dean, who smirked up at him. “Dean is the Watcher, a warrior angel. His power is more physical, so his vessel has more musculature. His features were his own choice that I would not deign to ask about out of respect for him as my brother.” The green-eyed angel swung his head around to smirk at Gabe. “We are aware that humans regard the specter of Death to appear as a pale skeleton with a scythe. It’s more a simplification of the incarnation but he actually has a mullet and uses technology to track when a soul is come due for separation from flesh.”

“A…mullet?” Gabe scoffed skeptically. Dean finally laughed out loud and leaned back, arms thrown wide on the back of the couch. 

“He’s a bit eccentric and prefers we all call him ‘Dr. Badass’ in this new age,” Dean snorted.

“But he also answers to ‘Ash’,” Sam sighed in exasperation. 

“And Heaven and Hell are real?” This was Cas asking quietly.

Their family was extremely religious, having been under Naomi’s domineering hand for as long as they remembered. The father of the biological children had been even more afraid of their father, Zachariah, but upon his death a decade ago, Naomi had decided to remarry with a man who she could control, rather than one who controlled her. She had, however, not accounted for Chuck’s eccentric nature. He was an author of a series of books about an angel and an archangel that went around the world stopping the forces of evil and saving humans, but he had been startled to learn that he believed in what he wrote about. Not just angels and demons, but ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and a plethora of other things. 

Chuck had been the one to insist they adopt other children who needed loving homes. Naomi had insisted they all attend private fundamentalist Christian schools, but had left any nurturing, etc, to Chuck. By the time she realized that Chuck had loosened her tight grip over most of the blended family, it was too late. She had been taken out by a random accident at the dentist where a technician had a seizure and accidentally drove the drill through the patient’s eye. Chuck had refused to sue as both he and Naomi had been extremely well off, but he’d moved the family to a new city just the same. 

Sam smiled at Cas and leaned against the closest wall. 

“Yes.” And of course, Gabe couldn’t just accept that.

“Hold on there, Big Guy.” He held up an empty hand, using the other to yank out the lollipop, but missed the stick the first time and having the awkwardly grab it a second time and swallow after it was removed. “So Death is a redneck on a computer and the angels are sexy giants with wings that can turn invisible. And you’re trying to tell us that all that religious crap mom and dad beat into us is real?” Sam grimaced but exchanged a glance and a shrug with Dean.

“Yes?” Sam’s answer came out more hesitant than he’d intended, but Gabe was the first human who had ever addressed him without absolute reverence. The archangel bit his lower lip in thought, not noticing when Gabe licked his own lips as his focus dropped to Sam’s mouth. Dean half turned to glare at the blond human. When Gabe just plopped down next to Dean and shoved the lollipop back into this mouth, the look in his eyes was a bit stunned. 

“That shut you up?” Gabe blinked at him, then shrugged with a light blush, making Dean chuckle and wink at Cas, who was more stunned at seeing Gabe quiet. 

“Not sure I’m ready for any more reveals,” Cas said softly, making Dean double over in laughter, with small glares from both Gabe and Sam. 


End file.
